It hasn't been much more than a week, but Foursquare has officially spun off its check-in features onto a new app called Swarm, and many frequent users who used to love checking in on Foursquare aren't happy with the changes.

Many users have already hit social media sites like Twitter to complain with hashtags like #killswarm and #hateSwarm.

Here's Why:

Badges

Where did the badges go? On the old Foursquare app, users were awarded badges based on frequent activities. So, if a user loved going out for Mexican food and he went to multiple locations to grab the cuisine he was awarded the "Hot Tamale" badge. The more Mexican places the user went to, the higher the level of "Hot Tamale" he received. Or, say you're a big time business traveler, you recieved the "JetSetter" badge depending on how many airports you've been to.

Now, on Swarm there's no badges. Users won't lose their hard-earned badges, but they won't get any new ones.

Mayor?

One of the best things about Foursquare is becoming a mayor of a place. This means you are a loyal user or customer of the place. This could be your gym, your favorite restaurant or even your apartment complex. It meant you knew almost everything about the place and you frequently visited to it. For this you were awarded the mayor of the place and a crown, and other users tried to oust you. It was exciting, and now it's gone.

On Swarm, you can only be the mayor among your friends. No more competing with strangers for mayorships. This isn't useful if you don't check into a lot of the same places as your friends do on Swarm or if they live in another city. Competing with strangers and getting that dreaded "you've been ousted as the mayor" e-mail was one of the most exciting features of Foursquare.

Now, What?

Swarm and Foursquare are separate and many former users are leaving the Swarm app, saying it's confusing and not useful to them anymore.

The Foursquare app still exists but you can't check in with it anymore. You can only read tips and leave them as well.

In place of badges, there are goofy stickers that don't do much besides add a little icon to your check-in. 

The app is extremely accurate when it comes to locating where you are. It is almost always correct and you'll find yourself making quick one- or two-click check-ins rather than searching for the place by name.

Foursquare is defending their decision:

"People are using Foursquare and Swarm better," Foursquare COO Jeff Glueck told TheVerge "They check in more often on Swarm according to our data, and are using Foursquare more often to explore. We're seeing more Explore queries once people migrated." 

Check out this spoof video of the Foursquare CEO apologizing for the changes:

So, what do you think of the new Swarm app? Will you use it to check in? Leave us a comment below.